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Re: [LUG] Youtube History

 

On Mon, 19 Oct 2015 19:42:05 +0100
Simon Avery <digdilem@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> On 19 October 2015 at 16:05, Neil Winchurst <barnaby@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
> wrote:
> 
> >
> > I do get annoyed  at the way that so many sites expect you to
> > provide, to me, quite unnecessary personal information. If you try
> > to set up an account for ITV player, for example, it is free to
> > use, but they want a full address, including Post Code, a phone
> > number, date of birth and I can't remember what else. Why, for
> > heaven's sake? It's a free service.
> >
> 
> Nothing's free.
> 
> At the risk of the obvious, and some assumptions:
> 
> Data mining like this is the main way they get paid. ITV's model is to
> provide content that brings enough people so that advertisers think
> it's worth paying ITV to sell adverts - whether it's on web, another
> digital channel - or on tv.
> 
> Your personal information is much more valuable to them for that
> primary purpose.
> 
> "Hey, advertisers, look at this guy!
> 
> He's X-Y years old. His income bracket it XX-YY. He's married to Mrs
> X and has 1.8 children of age range X-Y.
> He lives in Devon, and the average house price in his postcode is ÂX.
> We also know he's much more likely to be a homeowner than not, and
> will probably vote for X at the next election. Their income is in the
> X-Y range, they like cats and support cat charities in preference to
> others. They enjoy medical drama shows and the odd bit of lowbrow
> trashy reality tv. They do their main weekly food shop at X, but also
> buy clothes at Y and are regular online buyers at Z.
> 
> We have XX_Lots of people in this demographic, you should really use
> us to use your advertising budget. We're really good at helping you
> find the right customers for your product."
> 
> We all know we're marketed and milked. But all of us, including
> cynical old me with my toe in a section of that market from the other
> POV would be surprised quite how much is known about us even by
> someone as small scale as ITV. They'll use that information you give
> them and pay other people with other databases some money to enrich
> it (such as Experion who have a lot of profiling services) and build
> on it and within a second will have a fairly complete picture about
> you.
> 
> And then they'll sell it on to anyone that pays them. And then
> they'll sell it on. It's worth a lot of money to those who think it's
> useful.
> 
> (Don't start me on the DPA and what people think it does to protect
> their info - chances are it doesn't protect you as much as you think
> it does)
> 
> So don't be surprised when you're asked to provide this info. It's
> your choice whether it's worth the service you're trying to access of
> course. But that info's probably out there already, we leak huge
> amounts of personal info every day. (Unless we're particularly well
> disciplined and obsessively careful)
> 
> And I do love Martin's suggestion of filling in their own address. :)

Thanks, I knew it was bad but ....!!!

In this particular case I used a completely false name, address, DoB
etc, and even a special email address which disappears after 8 days. So
they did not learn a lot.

Added to which, once I found that I was not able to skip the ads I have 
never used it again.

Neil





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